Volkswagen has revealed its vision of the future – mobile charging robots which would allow every parking space to become a charging point.

The idea would see mobile charging robots which could drive themselves to a vehicle and can then connect to the car without any human interaction.

The robot also brings with them a trailer with a mobile energy storage device on it, which it then uses to charge the electric vehicle. The mobile energy storage device stays with the vehicle for the entire charging process while in the meantime, the robot goes away to charge other vehicles.

Then, once the vehicle is fully charged, the robot comes back to collect the energy storage device and returns it to the charging station to be replenished.

Mark Möller, head of development at Volkswagen Group Components, said: “The mobile charging robot will spark a revolution when it comes to charging in different parking facilities, such as multistorey car parks, parking spaces and underground car parks because we bring the charging infrastructure to the car and not the other way around. With this, we are making almost every car park electric, without any complex individual infrastructural measures.

“It’s a visionary prototype, which can be made into reality quite quickly, if the general conditions are right” 

When fully charged, the energy storage devices towed by the robots can hold around 25kWh each, and a single robot can tow many devices in one go. Thanks to integrated charging electronics, the energy charging storage device can offer 50kW DC rapid charging to a vehicle.